Brian French

I have spent most of my adult life in two worlds that do not always sit in the same room. One is the firehouse. I have been a firefighter with the Phoenix Fire Department since 2007, so I know the work from the inside. The calls. The kitchen table. The power and privilege of the role we get to play. I also understand the balance we try to create living in two houses, at home and at work. I have lived with the weight we carry, and with not always having the words for it.

I also understand the counseling side of the work. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor, and I have spent years sitting with first responders, helping them sort through the parts of the job that do not always get talked about.

For a long time, I thought being the steady one meant nothing could touch me. Stay calm. Handle it. Move to the next thing. Somewhere along the way, I realized steady and numb are not the same thing. I could still be someone people count on without disappearing from myself.

Real strength is not being numb. It is staying present, showing up honestly, and still choosing to keep going.

That belief has shaped a lot of my work. In 2009, I helped create Firestrong as a starting place for firefighters and their families to find help when they needed it. In 2012, I helped create the Phoenix Fire Peer Support Team and served as the Peer Team Coordinator for ten years. Then, in 2014, I helped found Public Safety Crisis Solutions to build a more complete mental health support system around public safety departments.

Each step came from the same problem I kept seeing from a different angle. People were carrying too much, and when they were finally ready to reach for help, they needed a place to start. Not a system that made them explain everything perfectly. Not pressure. Not shame. Just someone steady enough to hold space for what they were going through and help them take the next step.

That idea has followed me through my career, from Firestrong, to peer support, to building an employee assistance program designed around public safety. The work has changed over time, but the purpose has stayed the same: make sure people have somewhere to turn before they feel like they have to carry it alone.

Why I write

Lights the Way is where I put those thoughts into words. The writing begins in the world I know best, first responders, but it is not really about the badge. It is about being human under pressure. It is about the practices that help any of us carry hard things without losing ourselves.

• Based inGreater Phoenix, Arizona
• On the rigFirefighter, Phoenix Fire Department (since 2007)
• In practiceLicensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Arizona
• FounderFirestrong (2009) · Public Safety Crisis Solutions (2014)
• Peer supportPhoenix Fire Peer Support Team, Coordinator for ten years
• EducationM.A. Counseling Psychology, Argosy University · B.S. Psychology, University of Arizona